1. Swimming_MANGO

   9

   Having never played Silent Hill 2 or 3 when I was younger, I decided to jump into what many have dubbed the true classics, or embodiment of the survival horror genre, and I was impressed. Unlike the typical horror of today, focusing on cheap scares, and soundtrack jumps to physically frighten the character, Silent Hill does more:
   In an earlier review of mine for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I explained the three types of horror:
   1) A monster jumps out of a closet trying to kill you, and you blow it away with heavy ordinance (Doom 3 for example).
   2) A monster jumps out of a closet into a brightly lit room before dancing in the light for camera time before killing you (Dead Space).
   3) A monster is not in a closet but following behind you, and you don't know when it will attack you, or if it's even a monster.
   The first two are representative of Hollywood, and the typical horror genre in general, but the third is what Silent Hill does best. It was created to get under your skin, and that's exactly what it does best. It gets under your skin, and claws at your insides, yes it's that disturbing, and that hard hitting. The reason it's so successfully terrifying is because it doesn't throw monsters at you left, and right, it focuses on human nature, twisting it to such a disturbing extent, and all the while your left to stay sane while playing it. Although these games are fairly old, they most certainly are not becoming outdated. The only complaints I can think of are outdated controls (understandable due to its age), and the new voices that were recorded are terrible. If you're going to play it, pick the original voices, because they are far superior.
   A must play if you haven't gotten it already. Well worth the full price.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 4 users said Yes.
2. pots555

   8

   Some people are out of their minds. I am a fan of Silent Hill 2 and 3 from the PS2 era. This collection is good and it gives new players the chance to discover two classic games. I have had no problems at all while playing and my experience was fun and scary.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 4 users said Yes.
3. ApocalypseBrown

   6

   Until they patch the poor sound and glitches in gameplay, then this gets a 6. Which is a shame because arguably SH2 and 3 were the best games in the series, barring the cult classic SH1 which set the high benchmark. The 'descaling' of fog in SH2 is nigh on blasphemy, the atmosphere is key to the psychological horror which these games are famous for yet they decide to remove elements of it? And the different voice acting on SH3 is not up to standard, again why include something that devalues the experience. These criminal proceedings and the controls deem this collection a wait for the price drop game, again Konami (look at Seabass and PES) have short-changed classics for the sake of a quick buck! All the above faults are inexplicable when Konami refused to include SH1, though I personally won't let this effect the memories I had from the originals. And who else is getting annoyed with xborn74 reviewing style?… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 4 users said Yes.
4. gulpirak

   0

   I'm not going to engage in hyperbolic trash-talking. But I was a day-one purchaser of this collection, and I'm very disheartened by these HD ports. They are still great games, and these are better than nothing if you have no other way to play them, but the PS2 versions are very much preferable - and I'm not referring to the new voice cast. Nostalgia aside, the new voice casts are in all unbiased ways better actors, but I understand why players of the original release would want the old voice cast.
   
   *Constant audio and visual bugs that the patch has not fixed
   
   *Worst of all - for me: I don't know who's idea it was to put the draw distance of the fog farther away, but I'm definitely not a fan of that.
   
   I would not complain much if this was just a matter of stylistic and aesthetic choices I didn't like, but the fact that a couple of PS2 games simple do not work properly on a succeeding platform is pretty bad, and I have a hard time believing it could be explained away except for lack of effort.
   
   Konami was under no obligation to give its consumer base a re-release of these two great games, this must be acknowledged. However, if they didn't want to do it right, they should not have committed to it.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 4 users said Yes.

See all 27 User Reviews